Severus Snape, the Algebra Master
by Oncealiceswann
Summary: After Harry's eleventh birthday, the Dursleys sent him to Stonewall High.


Disclaimer:Any scenes/dialogues quoted from the Harry Potter books belong to JKR. I do not own any of them or make money off them.  
It's an awkward story, you have been warned.

1.

"Harry Potter… our new- celebrity."

Harry's stomach tightened. Being picked on before the new maths teacher got to know him wasn't a good start for high school.

"Congratulations for getting the first place in the entrance exam, Mr. Potter- does that mean you are the smartest student in the class?" He looked at Harry mockingly. "No- it means the test was too easy."

Harry looked up in anger. The man with greasy hair and hooked nose stared back. _Glared_ back, more likely. Harry wondered what he had done to provoke him, but he couldn't remember seeing this man before. He had never left Privet Drive before. His parents died when he was young, and he was sent to live with the Dursleys. They treated him like a slave at home, making him do all the chores and sleep in the cupboard. Now that he had come of age, they sent him to Stonewall High- Dudley told him that they stuff freshers' heads down the toilet on the first day, which made him slightly worried, but escaping the Dursleys was good enough.

The new maths teacher wrote "Severus Snape" on the board. Harry had never heard of such a name before.

"There will be no foolish debating over animal testing or silly titrations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle philosophy and exact art that is mathematics. However, for those selected few…"

Mister Snape looked around. Harry noticed that the brown haired girl beside him was sitting on the edge of her seat, looking desperate to start proving that she was one of the "selected few".

"… I can teach you how to sketch the universe, explore the brain, even challenge the limit of human imagination if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads I usually have to teach."

Harry immediately decided that he was going to be a dunderhead.

2.

To Harry's surprise, he made two friends during the first week of high school. He never had any friends before- the Dursleys never allowed him to go outside and play.

His new friends' names were Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. While Harry occasionally scored high in maths before high school, Hermione was good at _everything_. She was still good at everything in high school, except mathematics- but it was Snape's fault, naturally.

"I can't believe you got a B," Harry snapped when he saw the mark on Hermione's test, "you got everything right!"

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but was cut short by a deep, thrilling voice behind them.

"How touching, Potter, defending your friend when you got a C yourself?"

It was Snape. He studied Harry and his friends suspiciously for a moment, then held out a hand.

"Give me your test, Potter."

Harry obeyed, he could tell that Snape was going to mock him. The very thought made him outraged. Hermione saw that, and put a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Ah- Potter," Snape pointed at one of the harder questions on the test, "how did you get to that answer?"

"By thinking and calculating, sir."

"How would I know that when you simply wrote the first formula and jumped to the conclusion without any process in between, Potter?"

"I don't know, sir, in your mind's eye maybe?" Harry couldn't control his anger anymore. Snape was obviously picking on him, and he had no idea why.

"Detention, Potter, for disrespect. I hope you saw that coming in your mind's eye." Snape stormed off with a wicked smirk.

Harry clenched his fists.

"I'm not going- he's totally insane!"

He turned to look at Ron, who usually complained about Snape with him. To his surprise, Ron looked disapproving.

"I think you should go, Harry," he said, "I heard that Snape can become nasty."

"I don't believe he can be any nastier than he already is."

Ron's face turned green. "Well…" he said, "my brothers, Fred and George were in his class, too. They pushed, and- Oh Harry, you don't want to know what happened to them."

Harry blinked. "What?"

"They got their heads stuffed down the toilet," said Ron.

3.

The detention wasn't as horrible as Harry had imagined, though. Snape gave him a few hard questions to struggle with. He was a bit flattered to be given some extra education, but he was proved wrong very soon. Snape wasn't there to teach him, he was there to _torture_ him.

"Getting it wrong again and again and again until you learn to keep your brain working, Potter!"

"Well, sir, maybe you should have given me some hints since my brain cannot work as brilliantly as yours!"

"Very well, Potter, you have just gained yourself another detention!" Snape slammed the door open, "Now get lost!"

Harry stormed off, wondering if Snape was a relative of the Dursleys.

4.

"I hope Snape wasn't too impossible with you, Harry." Hermione looked at Harry with concern the next day- in Snape's class.

"Granger!"

Harry noticed that Hermione shivered at the sound.

"Fascinating though your social life must be, Miss Granger, I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Detention with Potter tonight."

Harry inhaled. That was so unfair.

"Sir, it was my fault-"

"Shut the hole in your face, Potter, perhaps you are willing to have a week's detention in order to save your friend from my evil presence?" Snape walked to Harry's desk, leaning toward him. Harry could feel his breath- he smelled… he smelled like coffee. Ugh.

This time, Harry knew better than to argue.

5.

Having a friend there during Snape's detention felt a bit better than being with Snape alone, but Harry and Hermione were not allowed to talk- or make eye contact.

"Greasy git," Harry muttered under his breath when Snape mocked Hermione for getting a sign wrong. It was already a miracle to solve the question.

"I believe you said something, Mister Potter?" Snape raised one of his eyebrows.

"No, sir." Harry gritted his teeth.

"Perhaps you are eager to impress me- by, let me see, not being able to solve a single question in thirty minutes?"

"I tried!" Harry scrunched his scratch paper into a ball and threw it onto the wall. To his surprise, Snape picked it up and looked at it. He looked up at Harry after a few moments with a particularly unpleasant frown.

"Gave up after the first try, Potter?" he leaned in again, like he did in class. Harry smelled coffee.

"How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter." He whispered. "Arrogant, ignorant-"

"How dare you talk about my father like that!" Harry stormed off before Hermione could stop him.

6.

Snape hadn't given Harry any detention since the unpleasant discussion of his father. Moreover, he completely ignored Harry in his class. Not picking on him. Not mocking him in front of the class.

Harry didn't feel right. Although he defended his father, he had no idea what his father was like. He was told that he died in a car crash. Obviously, Snape knew his father. Harry wondered if Snape could tell him about his father, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to know. Snape _hated_ his father. What had his father done to make Snape hate him so much?

"Your father must have been good," Ron reassured him, "I mean, it's _Snape_ who hates him."

Harry nodded, but he wasn't sure.

"Perhaps you should ask the headmaster about it," said Hermione, "I heard that Snape studied at Stonewall High before. If he knew your father, then maybe your father studied here as well. The headmaster- well, we've seen him at the ceremony, haven't we? He's an old man, maybe he had been the headmaster since Snape was a student."

"Good point," Harry agreed.

7.

Mister Dumbledore, the headmaster, seemed to be a nice man. When Harry entered his office, he asked Harry if he wanted a lemon drop. Harry said no- Dudley was eating sweets all the time, and Harry believed that was why he got so fat.

"How can I help, my boy?" asked Dumbledore, his blue eyes sparkling behind the half-moon glasses. He also had a long nose- a bit like Snape's, but he looked better. Of course, anyone looked better than Snape- Snape always looked like Christmas was cancelled. Harry wasn't sure Snape liked Christmas, though.

"Sir, when I was having detention with Snape-"

" _Mister_ Snape, Harry."

"Well- Mister Snape seemed to… dislike me a lot because of my father. I heard that he studied at Stonewall High before. Any chance my father also studied here, Mister Dumbledore?"

Blue eyes flickered, as if searching inside memories.

"Ah… Mister Snape and your father didn't get along very well, but they never hated each other so much. Until one day, an accident happened."

Harry blinked. "An accident?"

"Yes, Harry. Your father saved Mister Snape's life."

"My father saved Snape- Mister Snape's life?" Harry's eyes widened in disbelief, "And Mister Snape hates my father because of that?"

"Yes…" Dumbledore said dreamily, and Harry was surprised to find out that there was sadness in his eyes. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it? Mister Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt… but your father has passed away. Perhaps he has taken you as a continuation of your father, and believes that giving you extra education would make he and your father quits. Then he could go back to hate your father peacefully."

Harry tried to understand, but he couldn't. "But Mister Snape wasn't giving me any extra education. He just gave me impossible questions and laughed at me when I couldn't solve them."

"Mister Snape has a unique way of caring for his students." Replied Dumbledore.

Harry wanted to ask a few more questions, but Dumbledore raised a hand.

"It is already after the curfew, Harry. I think you might want to go back to your dorm now, since you have classes in the morning."

Harry nodded and left. That night, he dreamt of his father saving Snape from Dudley's gang, and Snape frowning miserably because he couldn't bear being saved by James Potter. The image made him laugh.

8.

"Potter, perhaps you would like to solve this question in front of the class?"

Harry's face went pale. It was the hardest question on the test. He did not _solve_ it; he guessed the answer, and thank God, it was a fill-in-the-blanks question. Now how was he supposed to do it in front of the class?

"Scared, Potter?" The blond boy sitting behind Harry laughed at him. It was Malfoy. Snape seemed to like him- at least he didn't hate Malfoy so much. Harry heard that Malfoy's father was friends with Snape at high school.

"You wish." Harry muttered between gritted teeth and went to the board. Everybody stared at him.

"Well?" Snape raised his eyebrows. "You were the only one who got this question right, Potter- even the annoying Miss know-it-all didn't get it. Care to enlighten us?"

Malfoy and his friends giggled. Harry lowered his head.

"I- I can't remember how I got the answer, sir."

The class burst into laughter.

"Little liar!" Snape shouted. "You cheated, just like your father did when he-"

"Stop it!" Harry gathered the courage to shout back, "it has nothing to do with my father!"

Snape's face twisted in anger. "Tell me then, Mister Potter, how did you come to the answer without cheating?"

"I just- I just knew."

"You just… knew?" Snape let out a mocking laugh, "Once again, you astonish me with your gifts, Potter. Gifts mere mortals could only dream to possess. How grand it must be, to be the smartest in class- according to yourself only, of course."

"I didn't-"

"Detention, Potter, how very glad am I to have you suffer in my office again."

Ron glanced at Harry with sympathy, but Hermione looked like she had more to say.

"Library," she mouthed. Harry nodded.

9.

"I can't believe he's giving me detentions again!" Harry growled.

"I believe it's best for you, Harry," Hermione stared at him seriously, "I just realised that we only have ten weeks before our IGCSEs, and you still can't get an A in maths!"

"Ten weeks?" Harry hissed, "that's a long time, Hermione."

"Not at all," the girl glared, "I should have started revising a month ago, I don't know what's got into me…"

"Me neither," Harry muttered. He still wasn't sure about what Snape had in store. He almost convinced himself that Snape would never want to see him again after the unpleasant encounter, but Snape told him he was wrong. Again.

"Was that all you wanted to tell me, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I nearly forgot!" Hermione covered her mouth. "Harry, I found your father's name in school- in the trophy room. He was the captain of the football team, Harry- if it really was your dad."

"What was the name?" Harry asked.

"James Potter," said Hermione.

"That's him!" Harry whispered with delight, "that's my father!"

10.

Harry didn't get to his detention on time. He stared at his father's name in the trophy room, feeling overwhelmed. He really was there- James Potter really existed. Harry felt a connection between himself and his father. For the first time in his life, he was sure that James Potter was real. He didn't notice it was time for detention until he looked up to see the clock on the wall. Funny for a trophy room to have a clock- perhaps it was Snape who put it there to remind students of detention.

"Bloody hell," Harry hissed, and headed towards Snape's office.

11.

"You are late, Potter- what is your excuse?" Snape looked down at him.

"I was studying maths." Harry realised how stupid it was too late.

"You're lying to me again!" Snape shouted at him, but he didn't sound half as angry as he was in class. Harry looked up curiously, and was shocked to see that Snape looked as if- as if he was hurt. But that was impossible. Did he even possess a heart?

Strangely, Harry felt that words failed him. They fell silent for a moment, before Snape started, softly.

"You went looking for your father, didn't you, Potter?"

"I-"

But Snape didn't give him the chance to finish. "Detention till your exam, Potter."

That was so unfair. But for some weird reason, Harry didn't feel as upset as he should have been.

12.

"What? That greasy git's given you detention _till the exam_?" Ron shouted while they were waiting for the maths class to start.

"Keep it down, Ron! We're in the classroom and Snape could come in at any moment!" Hermione frowned.

"This is insane!" he remarked, "you should tell the headmaster!"

"What, Dumbledore?" Harry thought of the blue eyes sparkling behind half-moon glasses. "No- I think he will tell me that Snape has a unique way of caring for his students."

"Oh, he can't be that mad!" Ron said.

Well, he is. Harry thought.

It wasn't long before Snape entered the classroom. Harry noticed that he was carrying a large pile of papers. He knew that Ron noticed too, because he heard a growl from the red haired boy.

"You will need practice for your IGCSE exam." Snape announced. "Your exam starts in ten weeks. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an A in your IGCSE maths, or suffer my… displeasure."

"Displeasure," Harry muttered under his breath, "I can hardly imagine." Ron giggled, but Hermione stopped him.

"He's right, you know." She said.

Harry and Ron looked at each other in horror.

13.

"On time, Potter- you surprise me."

Harry didn't say anything. Snape shoved a few papers onto the desk, and stood up.

"I have other business to attend to, Potter, and if I find you gone when I come back- you might have to suffer my displeasure in advance." With that, he went out and closed the door behind him.

Harry couldn't concentrate on the maths questions. He was staring at Snape's drawer.

What would Snape take with him to school? He had heard that Snape lived on campus. He must have taken all the important possessions with him. He hesitated- he shouldn't invade other's privacy. But it was Snape, he probably deserved this.

With that thought in mind, Harry opened the drawer. A photograph caught his eye.

It was a fragment of a photograph, with only a woman smiling at him. Harry immediately recognised her- red hair, green eyes- it was his mother!

The thought that Snape kept his mother's photograph disgusted him. "That explains why he hates my dad, that much," he thought, "but who could he blame? For heaven's sake, I could never choose Snape over anyone if I was my mum."

Well… perhaps over the driver who killed my parents and ran away, Harry made a mental note. What was his name? Tom Riddle, perhaps, Harry believed he was already captured by police.

14.

The rest of the detentions went surprisingly smoothly. Harry concentrated on the questions, as he had already found out about Snape's past. He was a pitiful man, and Harry lost interest in getting angry. Snape was impatient, but he was intelligent at the same time. Almost attractive when he talked about mathematics. Almost. Snape really _cared_ about mathematics. Not every maths teacher cared about mathematics, and Harry knew that.

"Mathematical problems are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal. Solving them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You can never get to the end of mathematics."

And Harry agreed with every word of it. Intelligence could be… sexy, he thought. But Snape definitely wasn't sexy, he added in his mind.

15.

Harry didn't know how he managed to get an A in IGCSE maths. He was only 1% below the A* boundary. Dudley, who got a C, called him a teacher's pet. Harry couldn't imagine what it's like to be Snape's pet, though.

Life went on, and Harry started to find mathematics enjoyable.

16.

Time flied. Soon came the last maths class in high school. Snape was giving them a little speech on the final exam, but Harry didn't care. He was reading a book. When Snape finished the speech, he hid it inside his drawer.

Snape didn't pick on him. But when he finished his speech, he wandered to the back of the class and reached into Harry's drawer. Harry grabbed hold of his book and didn't let go.

"Give me your book, Potter."

"It's private property, sir."

Snape's lips twisted into a thin line. "Has the concept crossed your brilliant mind when you opened my drawer, Potter?"

Harry widened his eyes. But Snape said nothing more. His last maths class in high school was over.

17.

Harry knocked on the door. Three years have passed, and Snape was still teaching maths at Stonewall High. Occasionally Harry would hear freshers from Stonewall High complaining about maths class. Of course, Snape hadn't changed at all; but Harry felt a bit nervous after three years.

The door opened.

"Ah, Potter." Snape nodded and let him in. The office looked familiar. Something inside Harry softened.

Snape studied him for a while. Unlike the other teachers, he neither congratulated him for finishing university, or asked him how he'd been. Nonetheless, he asked Harry to sit down.

Harry felt awkward. Despite all the detentions he had, he didn't know what to say to Snape. But Snape broke the silence.

"Your father and I were classmates when we were young."

Harry nodded. "I know that."

Snape continued. "Your mother was here, too. But I knew your mother before we went to high school. Your father used to bully me with his friends, but despite being the bastard he was, he managed to make Lily fall in love with him."

Harry inhaled in surprise. "My father bullied you?"

Snape nodded. "Things are not what they seem, Potter. However, in your arrogance, you assumed everything."

Harry blushed. "Bloody hell- I thought- I think I should apologise."

"Accepted. But you have gained yourself a detention for inappropriate language, Mister Potter."

Harry growled. "You can't be serious. After all this time?"

"Always," came the familiar smirk.


End file.
